Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the Arts Centre Melbourne, where it is accompanied by Orchestra Victoria. In 2004, the company gave 226 performances in its subscription seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, attended by more than 294,000 people.
The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural event in Australia.
Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company focused on contemporary dance. It was founded by African American dancer and choreographer Carole Y. Johnson, Gumbaynggirr man Rob Bryant, and South African-born Cheryl Stone. Stephen Page was artistic director from 1991 to 2021, with Frances Rings taking over in 2022.
Electrofringe is a presenting platform for experimental electronic and technology-based art in Australia. Electrofringe is a non-profit arts organisation and annual festival.
The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001.
David Berthold is one of Australia's most prominent theatre directors and cultural leaders. He has directed for most of Australia's major theatre companies, as well as in London and Berlin, and has led several key arts organisations. He was Artistic Director of Brisbane Festival, one of Australia's major international arts festivals and Queensland’s largest arts and cultural event. Through his tenure of five festivals, 2015–19, Berthold transformed the Festival into Australia's largest major international arts festival, presenting more works to more people than any other, with an audience of more than one million people.
Wesley James Enoch is an Australian playwright and artistic director. He is especially known for The 7 Stages of Grieving, co-written with Deborah Mailman. He was artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company from mid-2010 until October 2015, and completed a five-year stint as director of the Sydney Festival in February 2021.
Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. It was to be superseded by a new festival called Rising from 2020.
Jarrod Carland is an Australian creative director, establishing design agency Studio Jack in 2008. He has also been involved in the entertainment industry as a producer, working on a variety of events and productions, from festivals to musical theatre productions and large scale concert events.
Kate Champion is an Australian Choreographer and Director.
Vulcana Circus is an Australian circus, created with the aim of training women, trans women, and non binary adults, and children and teens of all genders in the circus arts. The company was founded in 1995 at West End in Brisbane, by Antonella Casella in Brisbane, Australia, the company was named after the famous British strongwoman Vulcana.
Alex Broun is an Australian playwright and screenwriter, who has worked extensively with Short+Sweet, a series of theatre festivals for productions of ten minutes or less. Born in Sydney, Australia, he has been referred to as "the Shakespeare of short plays". Broun has had over 100 ten-minute plays produced in over 2000 productions in more than 40 countries globally, and his plays have been translated into many languages. He has also worked extensively as a Rugby journalist and served as Media Manager for the Springboks (1997–2000), the British & Irish Lions (2001), and the Melbourne Rebels (2007).
John Rodgers is a Brisbane-based Australian composer, improviser, violinist, pianist and guitarist.
Short+Sweet is a multi-form arts platform presenting festivals in theatre, dance, music-theatre, comedy and cabaret co-ordinated in multiple counties globally. The unifying feature of all works presented at the festival is they must be no longer than ten-minutes. Their flagship festival is Short+Sweet Theatre Sydney, the largest ten-minute play festival in the world.
Amanda Harrison is an Australian actress and singer, known for her roles in Wicked (Elphaba), We Will Rock You, and for originating the role of Paula Pokrifki in the world premiere of An Officer and a Gentleman. She has performed in cabaret several times, including her current production Up Close and Reasonably Personal which she is expected to perform at Melbourne Cabaret Festival in June 2014 and recently David Harris, Michael Ball, Lea Salonga and Marie Zamora for Enda Markey Presents Do You Hear The People Sing at Shanghai Grand Theatre. She voiced characters for Get Ace an animation series released in January 2014. She appeared with Mig Ayesa, Michael Falzon and Carly Thomas-Smith for three performances of The Music of Queen - Rock and Symphonic Spectacular. The concert series began on 7 February 2014, at Sydney Opera House supported by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra before three performances in Perth, Western Australia between 13–15 February.
Gideon Obarzanek is an Australian choreographer, director and performing arts curator. He was Artistic Associate with the Melbourne Festival (2015–2017), co-curator and director of 'XO State' at the inaugural Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts (2015–2017). Obarzanek was appointed Chair of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2015 and Strategic Cultural Engagement Manager at Chancellery at the University of Melbourne in 2018.
Mitchell Patrick Butel is an Australian actor, singer, director and writer. He is best known for his work in theatre, including musical and opera productions. He has been the artistic director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia since March 2019.
Sam Strong is an Australian theatre director and arts leader; he was the artistic director of Queensland Theatre Company (2015–2019) and of Griffin Theatre Company (2010–2013). He has also been Chair of Circa and the Associate Artistic Director of Melbourne Theatre Company.
OzAsia Festival, or simply OzAsia, is an Asia-focused arts festival in South Australia, presented by the Adelaide Festival Centre for two weeks in late October to early November each year. It features theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts from across Asia as well as outdoor events and food stalls. In some years it has focused on specific regions or countries in Asia.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the performing arts, mirroring its impacts across all arts sectors. Due to physical distancing requirements and closure of the physical venues, curtailing not only public performances but also rehearsals, many performing arts institutions attempted to adapt by offering new digital services. In particular this resulted in the free online streaming of previously recorded performances of many companies – especially orchestral performances and plays – lists of which were collated by journalists as well as bespoke crowdsourcing projects.
